Initiative would make Oregon gun owners use trigger locks, be liable for injuries

Updated April 2, 2018 at 9:15 PM;Posted April 2, 2018 at 6:19 PM

In this 2013 file photo, Fred Lee of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, shows the safe way to hold a revolver during a class in gun safety required by the state for applicants for a concealed handgun license. Two ballot measures have been proposed that could ask voters to approve new gun controls during November 2018 voting. (Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian)

Two relatives of people killed in the 2012 Clackamas Town Center shooting filed a proposed ballot initiative Monday that would establish wide-ranging requirements for gun owners, from how guns must be stored to making gun owners liable for injuries caused with their firearms. Their initiative is the second gun-related measure that could appear on Oregon's November 2018 ballot if backers gather enough valid signatures.

Backers will have to gather more than 88,000 voter signatures to put the question on the ballot this fall.

If Initiative Petition 44 qualifies for the ballot and is adopted by voters, it would compel Oregon gun owners to:

Store and transfer their weapons with trigger locks or in tamper-proof locked boxes

Directly supervise any child who uses their gun

Report a lost or stolen gun to the police within 24 hours of when they knew or should have known of the gun was missing

Be fully liable for an injury caused with their gun, unless the injury results from self defense or defense of another person

Breaking the new gun ownership rules, if voters enact them, could result in fines of up to $2,000 per violation.

Jenna Yuille, a chief petitioner of the measure, lost her mother in the Clackamas mall shooting. She said she believes stricter gun storage laws could save lives because guns stored unsafely "pose an immediate danger." Paul Kemp, whose brother-in-law was one of three killed during the 2012 mall shooting, is also a chief petitioner.

In its announcement of the potential ballot measure, the group Oregonians for Safe Gun Storage cited figures claiming that school shooters often use weapons stored unsafely by their parents or relatives and that safe gun storage laws may cut down on teen suicides and accidental child shootings.

Initiative Petition 44 is the second gun-related measure that may make the November ballot in Oregon. The first, a proposal brought by Portland clergy and numbered Initiative Petition 43, would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in Oregon. Supporters of each measure must collect at least 88,184 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Activists in Oregon and in other states have publicly pushed for new gun control laws following the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Following the shooting, in which 17 students and staff were killed, millions joined in protest marches around the nation, and some state legislatures – including Oregon's – have passed or debated new gun control laws.